Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to approve legislation making the ruble the main currency of exchange at all Russian seaports by next year, according to the Kremlin website.
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A court in Moscow has sentenced US-born financier William Browder in absentia to nine years in a penal colony, after convicting him of a $79 million tax fraud.

Browder, who is now a UK citizen, is known as the main lobbyist behind the anti-Russian ‘Magnitsky Act’ sanctions.

The court also ordered Browder to pay a fine of 200,000 rubles (US$3,400). His business partner, Ivan Cherkasov, was also sentenced in absentia to nine years behind bars and handed a 200,000-ruble fine in the same case.

In addition, the judge ruled that the pair must compensate the Russian state to the amount of 4.6 billion rubles ($79 million).

Moscow and Cairo have signed an agreement to construct Egypt’s first nuclear plant. The project will cost $21 billion and is due to be finished by 2028-2029.

The preliminary agreement between the countries was signed in 2015. A loan from Russia would cover 85 percent of the construction costs, and Russia's Rosatom would service the plant’s four reactors for 60 years, company chairman Aleksey Likhachyov said on Monday.

Russia wants to be an investor in Saudi Arabia’s project to build the Neom megacity, which will be 33 times bigger than New York City.

The project will be financed by the Saudi government and private investors and powered entirely by wind and solar energy.

"The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) wants to be a co-investor with other international funds. The Fund will attract leading Russian companies to invest in the creation of the city of Neom, thereby contributing to their high-tech expansion in the promising markets of Saudi Arabia and the entire Middle East," RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev told reporters on Thursday.

"We are talking about investments worth several billion dollars," he said. The day before, Dmitriev met the Saudi crown prince to discuss further investment cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the government to approve legislation making the ruble the main currency of exchange at all Russian seaports by next year, according to the Kremlin website.

To protect the interests of stevedoring companies with foreign currency obligations, the government was instructed to set a transition period before switching to ruble settlements.

According to the head of Russian antitrust watchdog FAS Igor Artemyev, many services in Russian seaports are still priced in US dollars, even though such ports are state-owned.

German vehicle producer Daimler will invest 15 billion rubles (about $250 million) in an assembly plant in Russia’s Moscow region, according to a statement from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Minpromtorg).

The plant will produce premium class passenger cars and be completed by 2019. Daimler will localize welding, painting, and assembly of vehicles, as well as logistics in Russia.

"According to the contract, Daimler guarantees to invest at least 15 billion rubles in the project. The investment contract has been signed for nine years. The launch is scheduled for 2019; the plant's production capacity will be over 20,000 cars a year. The project will create more than a thousand jobs," Minpromtorg said in a statement.

Russia will contribute to the project by giving government support and will offer a favorable tax environment, the ministry added.

Commodity trader Glencore Plc and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund agreed to buy a 10.2-billion euro ($11 billion) stake in Russia’s largest oil producer from the state in a triumph for President Vladimir Putin over sanctions imposed by the West.

The surprise deal gives the buyers a 19.5 percent stake in Rosneft PJSC, which the U.S. and European Union have targeted with punitive measures, and is the biggest foreign investment in Russia since the crisis in Ukraine. It also marks a stunning return to deal-making for Glencore Chief Executive Officer Ivan Glasenberg a little more than a year after his company was forced to raise cash from shareholders.

An agreement on creating a 'green customs corridor’ for agricultural products has been signed by Moscow and Damascus during a visit by a Russian delegation to Syria.

"Syrians are trying hard to supply high-quality products to the Russian market. Why shouldn't we take these products that give jobs to thousands, tens of thousands of Syrian people? We have agreed on this," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told TASS.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has revealed plans to visit China in May 2017 at a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Peru. Putin praised the rapid development of trade, industrial and high-tech ties between Moscow and Beijing.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the two-day Asian-Pacific Economic Forum (APEC) on Saturday. Putin said he has accepted an invitation to take part in events related to the implementation of Silk Road Economic Belt project, a large-scale initiative unveiled by Xi in 2013 that envisages the integration of trade and investment in Eurasia.

In a message to Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed confidence that the dialogue between Moscow and Washington, in keeping with each other’s views, meets the interests of both Russia and the US.

Putin also expressed hope over the joint efforts on bringing Russian-American relations out of their current crisis.